Survivors
by azkabcn
Summary: Dead. They're dead. All of them. With only Tecna and Timmy left as the survivors. AU one-shot, done for the First Sentence Challenge on WCFC.


**This is rated Borderline T/M for mentions of violence and torture.**

* * *

She took a long look at her teachers, gaping at them in disbelief.

'What…?' she whispered, the sound barely rolling past her lips. I reached out for her hand, threading our fingers together.

'I'm so sorry, Tecna,' Miss Faragonda told her. 'I really, really wish you didn't have to find out like this.' The headmistress shook her head.

Tears brimmed in Tecna's eyes and her lip quivered. I was quick to envelope her in a hug, wrapping my arms around her shoulders.

I wanted to tell her that it would be okay. That everything would be fine. But I couldn't.

Because it wouldn't be.

They were gone. All ten of them. Only Tecna and I had survived as we were on a different mission.

I had to be strong for her. I had to grieve later. She was shattered. I had to try to fix her. I couldn't do that if I, myself, was broken.

'Timmy,' she sobbed.

'I've got you, Tecna. I've got you,' I whispered back.

And suddenly we were in our own little world. Our own, dark, black world. No teachers, no friends. Just us and our demons amongst the sombre masses of darkness.

'They're all dead!'

'I know. I know.' I nodded against her hair.

She cried silently afterwards, and I knew she would berate herself later for letting go. She was normally so calm and collected.

But no one could blame her. All her friends were dead. She was allowed to cry at a time like this.

But I couldn't cry. Not right now. Now I had to be here for Tecna.

We stood there for what seemed like hours but what was really a space of five minutes.

When she could cry no longer, I gently shifted her so I could see her face.

I smiled slightly at her. I wiped her tears away and she nodded.

We turned back to Miss Faragonda and Miss Griselda.

'I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that,' Tecna started saying.

'No,' Miss Faragonda interrupted. 'You don't need to be sorry. We understand. We _all_ understand.'

'But—'

'Tecna. It's okay to cry,' Faragonda explained. 'Okay?'

Tecna nodded slightly.

The headmistress closed her eyes for a second and sighed. 'I understand this next part is going to be difficult for you. For you both. Seeing them. Their bodies.'

I swallowed.

 _Stay strong, Timmy. She needs you._

'Okay,' I said. 'The sooner we do this, the sooner it's over.'

'Follow me.' Griselda walked around the desk and up to the door.

I squeezed Tecna's hand as I willed my legs to move.

Griselda lead us to the infirmary where the nurse greeted us from outside.

'Wait here,' Griselda instructed.

She and the nurse walked inside. The door didn't open enough for me to see inside.

I glanced at Tecna and from the way she was gazing at nothing specifically, I knew she was counting back from fifty to one to calm herself down.

Two minutes later, the door opened once again and the nurse led us into the room.

I reeled instantly at the line of beds across once side of the room. The Winx and the Specialists were lying lifeless, comatose.

'No…' I heard Tecna whisper.

My eyes drifted to each of them in turn.

Stella, her bloodied dress where her heart had been pierced.

Nabu, his neck snapped at a right angle.

Brandon, skin ripped and bones shattered.

Bloom, her eyes missing from their sockets.

Musa, her arms and legs bent horribly.

Helia, covered in blood from head to toe.

Riven, bruised and battered beyond repair.

Flora, a massive gash where her throat had been ripped open.

Sky, a colossal wound where his arm should have been.

Layla, frail and limp as a result of starvation.

'How?' Tecna demanded, her voice breaking. 'How did Baltor singlehandedly torture ten people to the point of death?!'

I held Tecna close, offering what little comfort I could.

'A cloning spell. He cloned himself and 'programmed' each of his clones to kill,' Ofelia told us.

'Did they know? Did they know what they were being tortured by a clone?' I asked.

The nurse shook her head. 'No. They all thought they were the only one being asked to do this. He threatened to kill the rest of you if they didn't report to him.'

'What about us? Why didn't he come for us?' I asked.

'I don't know. I honestly can't tell you.'

'But why? What does he gain from doing this?' I asked again.

'I know,' Tecna mumbled.

'You do?'

'Now that they're dead,' she winced at the words, 'We're too distracted to fight. We won't fight him while we're grieving. He knows that. And he plans to use it against us.'

'Revenge,' I reminded her. 'We get revenge.'

Tecna shook her head. 'No. We're angry. Fighting with anger never works. We'd just be blindly throwing ourselves at him. That'd give him even more of an advantage. He knows how to destroy us now.'

'Destroy us?' I queried.

'Yes. He knows that I'm usually so logical. I almost always have some sort of plan. He thought that hurling all my friends' deaths,' she looked over at their bodies, her shoulders slumping. 'He thought that seeing all my friends dead at once would throw me off balance and I hate to say this but he's right.' She shook her head.

I squeezed her hand. 'How'd you know?' I asked her.

'It's the only logical explanation. Before they left last month, Baltor told us he was making his next move. This is it.'

'Why didn't they tell us the truth?'

'They did,' Tecna answered. 'They told us they were going to fight. They _were_ going to fight. For us.'

I thought about what she'd said. Alarmingly, it all made sense.

'They didn't tell us the exact truth because would you have let them go alone if they had?' she continued.

I shook my head. I hugged her, managing a smile. 'When'd you become so smart?' I mumbled.

'When I needed to be,' she replied.

* * *

I walked into the dorm room I shared (or used to share) with Riven and Sky.

It had just gone two AM and after staying for several hours at our friends' funeral, it was decided that Tecna and I would kip down together in my dorm.

But now I wasn't sure that was a good idea.

As soon as I laid eyes on my friends' things, the memories of them came flooding back and my hands fisted by my sides.

Tecna stood beside me, uncurling my hands and sliding her fingers through mine.

'Hey,' she whispered. 'I've got you.'

I smiled weakly, noting the reference, and turned to face her. I put my hand to her cheek and brought my lips to hers. My eyes shut contentedly and I sighed, grateful to have her by my side.

When we parted, I rested my forehead against hers. 'I love you, Tecna.'

She smiled, and I saw a faint glimmer of hope shining in her eyes. 'I love you too.'

I took a step back, running my eyes around the room. I looked at Sky's bed and came to a decision.

'Hey, feel free to take my bed,' I told her. 'I'm taking Sky's.'

After all, Sky was the one person who truly believed in me, who took me seriously.

'Okay,' she replied. She took her bag and went over to the bathroom. 'I'm taking a quick shower. Don't wait up for me if you don't to.'

As she disappeared into the bathroom, I thought to myself that I would _have_ to wait up, even if I didn't want to. I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep.

* * *

Hours passed. I tossed and turned, unable to find respite in sleeping.

My eyes kept wandering around the room, which suddenly felt far too large.

Sky's training bag sat on his chair and a note on his noticeboard read: _PACK ALL WEAPONS FOR NEXT TRAINING COURSE_ and I found myself with tears slipping down my cheeks. There would _be_ no next training course.

Sky was gone. They were _all_ gone. Sky, Riven, Helia, Brandon, Nabu. All dead. And I didn't know what I was going to do. Now that they were gone, I truly realised how much I needed them.

I sat up, knowing that any further attempt to sleep would cause me to be even less tired. I noticed Tecna staring up at the ceiling.

'Tec?' I whispered.

'Yeah?'

'I'm gonna go take a walk. I can't sleep,' I told her.

'Can I come with?' she asked.

'Sure.' I slipped on my coat over my t-shirt and slipped my feet into my shoes.

We walked around the eerily silent campus, not having a particular destination to get to.

We got to the art room and I remembered something.

'Wait Tec,' I muttered hurriedly as she made to walk on ahead.

I silently opened the door to the art room and made my way to the easels at the back.

The first one was an incomplete picture of a garden. Half of it was painted in, the rest was just a pencil outline. I knew instantly it was Helia's; he told me he had started it a couple of months ago.

'Is that… Helia's?' Tecna asked.

I nodded. 'Yeah.' I sighed, shaking my head.

'He won't get to finish it,' she breathed.

'I know. I know. And I wish I could do anything to change that.'

'What are you two doing down here at this hour?' we heard Saladin's voice call out.

We turned around to face him and saw him and Codatorta standing in front of us.

'We— we couldn't sleep,' Tecna admitted.

'I understand,' Saladin replied. 'We didn't know what it was you two.'

'We'll try to be quieter.'

'No, it's perfectly okay. We were patrolling anyway.'

They turned to leave but Codatorta turned back. 'Be strong, students. Strength will serve you well.'

When they were gone, I turned to Tecna. 'Strength will serve you well,' I repeated. 'What'd you think he meant?'

'I don't know,' she replied. 'But come on. I want to get out of here.'

We resumed walking the building silently.

My mind was far from here in the present. I indulged in memories; good memories of us: the Specialists and the Winx Club.

* * *

 **Oh. My. God. I haven't written an actual Winx Club one-shot since the beginning of last August. I've written drabbles and freeverses but not an actual one-shot. Feels strange coming back. But it was fun. I enjoyed writing this.**

 **Anyway. This little fic was written for the First Sentence Challenge over on WCFC. I take the first line from another Winx Club fic (in this case it was taken from** _ **All the Way to Hell and Back**_ **(rated M, for those who were thinking about going to read it), my Rubik's Cube Challenge fic) and write another fic with the same starting sentence. What d'you think? How'd I do?**

 **Leave a review to let me know what you think!**


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